Post by emptyhat on Oct 1, 2015 16:29:30 GMT -5
While the Orks and Sould Drinkers were tearing each other apart half a sector away, an excavation had reached a breakthrough on Ceruleus, a planet in the Sapphire system of the Sail Worlds. Imperial archaeologists, under the watchful eye of the Imperial Guard had managed to enter previously unexplored rooms in the Templar's Tomb and bring a relic to the surface. This artefact was an Imperial probe of extreme antiquity thought to contain records as priceless as they were unknown.
Additional specialists had been called in to transport the relic to better facilities but unfortunately they were not the only ones arriving to take possession of the artefact and its secrets.
For this battle we initially diced for Maelstrom or Eternal war and ended up with the relic as our scenario. Always a tough mission. The deployment placed us on the short table edges and since I won the roll to go first I took the side that contained the fortifications. A nice advantage for a guard army with a couple of bassies in it but given how tough the Dark angel army was it was probably needed.
The Dark Angels had three main threats in their army. A Fellblade, A Storm Eagle full of Terminators and a Librarian, and a Land Raider Spartan full of Deathwing Knights. Destroying the Fellblade and stranding the Knights seemed the key to victory but the initial guard lascannon fusillade and earthshaker volley only succeeded in lightly damaging the ancient superheavy. The Leman Russ Battletanks opted to fire their main cannons at the Rhino and Vindicator but were only able to rough them up.
The Dark Angels had better luck with their ranged attacks as they advanced, the Fellblade and Spartan's BS4, twin-linked quad lascannons were particularly dangerous and the guard Chimeras were swiftly destroyed granting the Space Marines, first blood.
In the second turn the Storm Trooper platoon arrived from reserve (I'm assuming that ST platoons arrive from together rather than rolling for individual squads, just like the infantry platoons) and since they were bare bones and there were almost no power armour targets in the DA army I put them down recklessly close to the Rhino on the DA's right flank. They managed to set down with barely an inch to spare and were joined by one of the out flanking scout sentinels. Between them they were able to destroy the rhino, spilling out the marines which were then targeted by a battlecannon that showed a callous disregard for the safety of the storm troopers, the shot was spot on though, hitting a number of the tactical marines, and witht the promise of more battlecannon shells they were forced to go to ground and scrimp what saves they could. The Vindicator also popped this turn, exploding and hitting the tactical marines for some more casualties.
The other Dark Angel flank managed far better though taking only light hull point damage.
In the Dark Angel turn the Fellblade turned so that it could unleash its forward mounted heavy-bolters on the Storm Troopers and hit the Scout Sentinel with one of the lascannon sponsons, the sentinel lost a hull point but survived and the heavy bolter chewed through two of the troopers but they passed the morale check. The tactical marines proved useless in finishing the job, their snap shots missing everything. The Fellblade's accelerator cannon targeted the pesky lascannon command squad, led by Captain Testless but the squad went to ground for a 3+ save and only took one casualty.
The Spartan full of knights was getting close now but with the Fellblade exposing side armour it was alos the ideal time to strike at the superheavy. The other Scout Sentinel showed up behind the Fellblade but the autocannon failed to hit the rear armour. Both Vendettas also showed up, targeting the Spartan for destruction befoe it could get the Deathwing Knights any closer. The Land Raider however proved impervious to harm this turn, eating up most of the guard firepower and ensuring that the Fellblade also avoided the worst of things as shots that would otherwise have gone intos its sides were sent against the Land Raider, only to fail spectacularly. The Storm Troopers continued to perform well though, gunning down the majority of the Tactical Marines.
In the Dark Angel turn the Fellblade pulled back to protect itself from side and rear shots and the last two Tactical Marines broke off their fight with the Storm Troopers to try and get to the relic. They also opened up enough space between them for a demolisher shell from the Fellblade (and some more heavy bolter fire) to kill off most of the Strom Troopers, though apparently the Tempestus didn't really care about that sort of thing, easily passing their moral check again. The Leman Russ Executioner was killed off before it had a chance to target any terminators and the Punisher that had arrived from reserve in the Guard turn suffered critical existence failure from a lascannon shot before it had had a chance to do anything. But unfortunately for the Knights although their Land Raider was made of some seriously high quality adamantium it wasn't actually fast enough to take them over both Vendetta bases and it was blocked from driving around by tank traps on one side and the fortress on the other. Taking the lesser of evils it diverted to the right and dumped the knights out further away from the guard lines than was ideal.
With a tough close combat unit at the door it was crunch time for the Guard. The Vendettas switched to hover and disembarked their troops, the Astropath command squad and the Culexus Assassin. Unfortunately since this would have been the first psychic phase of the game I skipped from movemnt to orders and then realised that the Culexus fires his weapon in the psychic phase. The Dark Angels player called 'no backsies' on it and as the Assassin had just disembarked from a transport it wouldn't be able to charge either. The lascannons that opened up on the Knights did take some toll though, killing a couple of them, though their Strom Shield protected them well and only two died. The two remaining Storm troopers followed the two remaining Tactical Marines and gunned one of them down. The remaining marine failed morale and fell back towards them. (Can Space Marines rally from AtSKNF if they are within 2" of an enemy unit? I was informed that they could so the marine was able to auto rally at the start of the next turn.)
The next turn saw the arrival of the Storm Eagle which shot down one of the Vendettas and the continued failure of the Fellblade to kill Captain Testless' squad. The last of the Storm Troopers died as did one of the Scout Sentinels, while the other was damaged. The Knights charged the Culexus and tore the assassin to pieces but losing one Knight in return (darned storm shields.).
Things were looking dicey for the Imperial guard but the next turn started Yellow Squad moving up to support Major Boarroarer's command squad and the two units, poured firepower into the Knights, killing off the Chaplain and another Knight, reducing them to two models (bye bye shield wall
). The remaining Vendetta also managed a super lucky lascannon shot which downed the Storm Eagle in one. This was a bitter blow to the Dark Angels since the flyer was full of Terminators and the Librarian who had to take strength 10 AP2 hits. In the end only two Terminators died but they were still stranded far away from the action and time was running out. The Fellblade also suffered a lot in this turn, it dropped down to 3 hull points but my inability to roll 7s on my penetrating hits from lascannons saved it. The Master of Ordinance also managed to scatter his shot off of the Fellblade and onto the lurking sentinel, which was auto destroyed by it since it only had 1 hull point left.
In the end it was too late for either side to get to the relic or to claim line breaker. The Dark Angels had gained first blood but lost their warlord when the Chaplain had died. The Guard warlord, Captain Testless became the target of the Fellblade once again, in a final bid to break the tie and the squad took ,4 more casualties, leaving only the Captain and the Master of Ordinance alive. Thus the famous 'auto-draw' mission ended in a draw.
Additional specialists had been called in to transport the relic to better facilities but unfortunately they were not the only ones arriving to take possession of the artefact and its secrets.
For this battle we initially diced for Maelstrom or Eternal war and ended up with the relic as our scenario. Always a tough mission. The deployment placed us on the short table edges and since I won the roll to go first I took the side that contained the fortifications. A nice advantage for a guard army with a couple of bassies in it but given how tough the Dark angel army was it was probably needed.
The Dark Angels had three main threats in their army. A Fellblade, A Storm Eagle full of Terminators and a Librarian, and a Land Raider Spartan full of Deathwing Knights. Destroying the Fellblade and stranding the Knights seemed the key to victory but the initial guard lascannon fusillade and earthshaker volley only succeeded in lightly damaging the ancient superheavy. The Leman Russ Battletanks opted to fire their main cannons at the Rhino and Vindicator but were only able to rough them up.
The Dark Angels had better luck with their ranged attacks as they advanced, the Fellblade and Spartan's BS4, twin-linked quad lascannons were particularly dangerous and the guard Chimeras were swiftly destroyed granting the Space Marines, first blood.
In the second turn the Storm Trooper platoon arrived from reserve (I'm assuming that ST platoons arrive from together rather than rolling for individual squads, just like the infantry platoons) and since they were bare bones and there were almost no power armour targets in the DA army I put them down recklessly close to the Rhino on the DA's right flank. They managed to set down with barely an inch to spare and were joined by one of the out flanking scout sentinels. Between them they were able to destroy the rhino, spilling out the marines which were then targeted by a battlecannon that showed a callous disregard for the safety of the storm troopers, the shot was spot on though, hitting a number of the tactical marines, and witht the promise of more battlecannon shells they were forced to go to ground and scrimp what saves they could. The Vindicator also popped this turn, exploding and hitting the tactical marines for some more casualties.
The other Dark Angel flank managed far better though taking only light hull point damage.
In the Dark Angel turn the Fellblade turned so that it could unleash its forward mounted heavy-bolters on the Storm Troopers and hit the Scout Sentinel with one of the lascannon sponsons, the sentinel lost a hull point but survived and the heavy bolter chewed through two of the troopers but they passed the morale check. The tactical marines proved useless in finishing the job, their snap shots missing everything. The Fellblade's accelerator cannon targeted the pesky lascannon command squad, led by Captain Testless but the squad went to ground for a 3+ save and only took one casualty.
The Spartan full of knights was getting close now but with the Fellblade exposing side armour it was alos the ideal time to strike at the superheavy. The other Scout Sentinel showed up behind the Fellblade but the autocannon failed to hit the rear armour. Both Vendettas also showed up, targeting the Spartan for destruction befoe it could get the Deathwing Knights any closer. The Land Raider however proved impervious to harm this turn, eating up most of the guard firepower and ensuring that the Fellblade also avoided the worst of things as shots that would otherwise have gone intos its sides were sent against the Land Raider, only to fail spectacularly. The Storm Troopers continued to perform well though, gunning down the majority of the Tactical Marines.
In the Dark Angel turn the Fellblade pulled back to protect itself from side and rear shots and the last two Tactical Marines broke off their fight with the Storm Troopers to try and get to the relic. They also opened up enough space between them for a demolisher shell from the Fellblade (and some more heavy bolter fire) to kill off most of the Strom Troopers, though apparently the Tempestus didn't really care about that sort of thing, easily passing their moral check again. The Leman Russ Executioner was killed off before it had a chance to target any terminators and the Punisher that had arrived from reserve in the Guard turn suffered critical existence failure from a lascannon shot before it had had a chance to do anything. But unfortunately for the Knights although their Land Raider was made of some seriously high quality adamantium it wasn't actually fast enough to take them over both Vendetta bases and it was blocked from driving around by tank traps on one side and the fortress on the other. Taking the lesser of evils it diverted to the right and dumped the knights out further away from the guard lines than was ideal.
With a tough close combat unit at the door it was crunch time for the Guard. The Vendettas switched to hover and disembarked their troops, the Astropath command squad and the Culexus Assassin. Unfortunately since this would have been the first psychic phase of the game I skipped from movemnt to orders and then realised that the Culexus fires his weapon in the psychic phase. The Dark Angels player called 'no backsies' on it and as the Assassin had just disembarked from a transport it wouldn't be able to charge either. The lascannons that opened up on the Knights did take some toll though, killing a couple of them, though their Strom Shield protected them well and only two died. The two remaining Storm troopers followed the two remaining Tactical Marines and gunned one of them down. The remaining marine failed morale and fell back towards them. (Can Space Marines rally from AtSKNF if they are within 2" of an enemy unit? I was informed that they could so the marine was able to auto rally at the start of the next turn.)
The next turn saw the arrival of the Storm Eagle which shot down one of the Vendettas and the continued failure of the Fellblade to kill Captain Testless' squad. The last of the Storm Troopers died as did one of the Scout Sentinels, while the other was damaged. The Knights charged the Culexus and tore the assassin to pieces but losing one Knight in return (darned storm shields.).
Things were looking dicey for the Imperial guard but the next turn started Yellow Squad moving up to support Major Boarroarer's command squad and the two units, poured firepower into the Knights, killing off the Chaplain and another Knight, reducing them to two models (bye bye shield wall
). The remaining Vendetta also managed a super lucky lascannon shot which downed the Storm Eagle in one. This was a bitter blow to the Dark Angels since the flyer was full of Terminators and the Librarian who had to take strength 10 AP2 hits. In the end only two Terminators died but they were still stranded far away from the action and time was running out. The Fellblade also suffered a lot in this turn, it dropped down to 3 hull points but my inability to roll 7s on my penetrating hits from lascannons saved it. The Master of Ordinance also managed to scatter his shot off of the Fellblade and onto the lurking sentinel, which was auto destroyed by it since it only had 1 hull point left.In the end it was too late for either side to get to the relic or to claim line breaker. The Dark Angels had gained first blood but lost their warlord when the Chaplain had died. The Guard warlord, Captain Testless became the target of the Fellblade once again, in a final bid to break the tie and the squad took ,4 more casualties, leaving only the Captain and the Master of Ordinance alive. Thus the famous 'auto-draw' mission ended in a draw.
